The Yama property is set to become a public park, heightening concerns that its many artifacts could be disturbed or damaged.

“We know a lot is still there, but we don’t know everything that’s there,” said Hank Helm, the museum’s executive director. “This will help us recover things and bring some of it to the museum.”

Yama village took shape in the late 1800s on a hillside near the Port Blakely lumber mill. It had a hotel, general store, Buddhist temple, school, bathhouse and other businesses catering to a large Japanese community. The buildings are gone, but many household items remain in plain site or just below the soil’s surface.

Jenkins made the donation through a trust named for her late husband, William M. Jenkins, a longtime CEO of Seafirst Bank. She was on an out-of-state trip and could not be reached for comment.

Helm said Jenkins believed her husband would have wanted to see the Yama property’s artifacts preserved.

The $50,000 donation will be broken up into $10,000 increments over the next five years.

Helm said the proposed work will be overseen by an archaeologist, and may include hands-on educational opportunities for students.

The museum has long wanted to survey and excavate the property, but lacked the funds to do so.

The city has recently given strong indications that it would like to transfer the Yama property to the Bainbridge park district.

The district requested that the city not endorse adding the property to the city’s register of historic places. The move heightened concerns from some historic preservationists that the district may not respect the site’s artifacts.

The district has given mixed messages about what it intends to do with the property.

District planning documents and maps call for a new trail running through Yama. Historians say the trail could open the largely inaccessible property to people who may damage or steal artifacts.

District staff have indicated they’d likely install a trail, but stress they have no formal plans to do so. Museum and district staff have begun talking in recent weeks to ensure the property’s artifacts are preserved.

“This is all just now getting started,” Helm said. “But I think this (donation) will go a long way to get a good project going.”